1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a thin film transistor and/or a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Transistors are widely used as a switching device or a driving device in electronic devices. Since a thin film transistor (TFT) may be manufactured on a glass substrate or a plastic substrate, the TFT is useful for displays such as an organic light-emitting display or a liquid crystal display (LCD). Properties of the TFT may depend on material properties of a channel layer (e.g., a semiconductor layer).
Most of the displays that are currently commercialized use a TFT including a channel layer formed of amorphous silicon (hereinafter, referred to as an amorphous silicon TFT), or a TFT including a channel layer formed of polycrystalline silicon (hereinafter, referred to as a polycrystalline silicon TFT). Since the amorphous silicon TFT has very low charge mobility of about 0.5 cm2/Vs, it may be difficult to increase an operation speed of a display. Also, since the polycrystalline silicon TFT may require processes such as a crystallization process, an impurities injection process, and an activation process, a process of manufacturing the polycrystalline silicon TFT may be more complicated and manufacturing cost is higher than the amorphous silicon TFT. Also, since it may be difficult to ensure uniformity of a polycrystalline silicon layer, if the polycrystalline silicon layer is used as a channel layer of a large display, the image quality of the display may decrease.
In order to implement a high-quality, high-definition, large next-generation display, a TFT exhibiting excellent performance is demanded. In this regard, research related to an oxide TFT, to which an oxide semiconductor having high carrier mobility is applied as a material of a channel layer, is being conducted. However, a conventional oxide TFT may not ensure high reliability. Thus, it is necessary to develop a transistor (TFT) having high mobility and excellent reliability.